Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

The Mission:Use up the leftover buttermilk. So I searched through a few cookbooks and websites and found a Banana Cake recipe that sounded fantastic. I love a good fruit based cake.

The Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups ripe mashed bananas

2 tsps lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

2 1/8 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

The Instructions:Preheat oven to 275*F. Grease and flour a 9x13" pan (or use non-stick). In a small bowl, mix the mashed banana with the lemon juice and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, then stir in the banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for one hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. (This will keep the cake very moist and make it easier to frost.) Frost the cake with the cream cheese icing and garnish with chopped walnuts or pecans.

Icing Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Icing Instructions:Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth then beat in the vanilla. Add the confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.

The Result:It smelled soooo good. It looked very pretty as well. If I make it again, I will halve the cream cheese icing recipe, since I didn't use it all. I only iced 3/4 of the cake, since my husband doesn't like cream cheese icing. I just found out that I don't like it either, so I'll only be icing 1/3 of it next time!

The Reviews:I thought it tasted fantastic. Mark really liked it, as did my favorite co-worker. My husband's not a big fan of bananas (now he tells me!) so he wasn't overly thrilled with it. I think he's crazy - haha. I left some for my parents to eat and they both loved it. And to get rid of the extra icing, I sent Mark home with the tub of it. I'm sure he's already polished it off with a spoon :)